Posted on 07/11/2012 8:19:58 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Romney to NAACP: Obama made it worse for you 'in almost every way' By Jonathan Easley - 07/11/12 10:01 AM ET
Mitt Romney will tell the NAACP on Wednesday that President Obama has made it worse for African-Americans “in almost every way.”
“If equal opportunity in America were an accomplished fact, then a chronically bad economy would be equally bad for everyone,” Romney will say, according to prepared remarks provided by his campaign. “Instead, it’s worse for African-Americans in almost every way. The unemployment rate, the duration of unemployment, average income and median family wealth are all worse for the black community.”
While Obama leads Romney 92 percent to 2 among black voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday, Romney hopes his economic pitch will resonate with a group that has been disproportionately affected by the economic downturn. He's made a similar appeal to other voting blocs, such as Hispanics and women.
Romney will acknowledge the historic nature of Obama’s 2008 campaign, in which he became the country’s first black president, but will also make the case for his own candidacy.
"I believe that if you understood who I truly am in my heart, and if it were possible to fully communicate what I believe is in the real, enduring best interest of African-American families, you would vote for me for president," the presumptive GOP nominee will say. "I want you to know that if I did not believe that my policies and my leadership would help families of color — and families of any color — more than the policies and leadership of President Obama, I would not be running for president."
He also will make the argument that Obama’s economic policies are creating similar barriers to those that civil rights activists fought hard to remove.
“If someone had told us in the 1950s or '60s that a black citizen would serve as the 44th president, we would have been proud and many would have been surprised,” Romney will say. “Picturing that day, we might have assumed that the American presidency would be the very last door of opportunity to be opened. Before that came to pass, every other barrier on the path to equal opportunity would surely have to come down.
“Of course, it hasn’t happened quite that way. Many barriers remain. Old inequities persist. In some ways, the challenges are even more complicated than before. And across America — and even within your own ranks — there are serious, honest debates about the way forward.”
The former Massachusetts governor will cite unemployment among African-Americans, which at 14.4 percent is well above the national average of 8.2.
“I am running for president because I know that my policies and vision will help hundreds of millions of middle-class Americans of all races, will lift people from poverty, and will help prevent people from becoming poor,” Romney will say. “My campaign is about helping the people who need help. The course the president has set has not done that — and will not do that. My course will.”
Romney will also focus on education, which earlier in the primary season he referred to as “the civil rights issue of our era.” Romney says he will “give the parents of every low-income and special-needs student the chance to choose where their child goes to school,” and will link federal education funds to the student, which he says will open the opportunity for children of poor families to attend charter and private schools.
“If equal opportunity in America were an accomplished fact, black families could send their sons and daughters to public schools that truly offer the hope of a better life,” Romney will say. “Instead, for generations, the African-American community has been waiting and waiting for that promise to be kept. Today, black children are 17 percent of students nationwide — but they are 42 percent of the students in our worst-performing schools.”
Obama will not address the NAACP convention this year, but Vice President Biden is scheduled to speak on Thursday.
I listened to most of his speech. It was actually pretty good.
what was the reaction from the audience??? glad to see someone at least attempt to tell the truth....
Its a start.
He should add:
education system fails them because unions are more important
they abort them because Planned Parenthood money is more important
they keep you on welfare so you can’t progress upward
He really should ask at the end “it seems more like a policy that the KKK would enact.
About what you would expect. Booed when he mentioned Obamacare. But he made some good points about jobs and schools. I don’t think he had anything to lose by addressing them and may actually have made some think about how bad Obama has been for them.
If he panders to them, he will get excoriated.
If he tells them the truth, he will get excoriated even more and, depending on the severity of the truth, possibly even booed off the stage.
This is the black version of the KKK. He would have been wiser to have spoken to CORE, what the NAACP used to be.
Except for the boos when he mentioned getting rid of Obamacare, the audience was respectful and he received more applause than I thought he would.
Naturally the Etch a Sketch guy comes across with false promises and pandering.
The truth is that “African-Americans” have a crime, scholastic and single parenting problem. They also have a Stockholm Syndrome issue that they are adamantly opposed to addressing through the ballot box.
I am referring to about all but 10 or 12 % of TBP-(Total Black Population)
Romney is done.
Mittens showed a lot of balls today.
Kudos to him for today.
It was a decent speech. Not game-changing, but decent. He actually gave a fairly creditable defense of why free enterprise is the best way to create jobs. He was booed considerably when he repeated his mantra about repealing Obamacare, but got some support when the went through his educational policies (charter schools, parental choice, etc.).
I doubt he changed many minds in the room. Those predisposed to like him probably came away a bit more enthusiastic. Those who merely hate him on the basis that he is a rich white guy, probably still hate him.
Best part of the speech was the way the last parts of it were punctuated with organ stings. I bet that was a first for him.
I don’t get why politicians think they have to pander to groups like this.
His citing the CoC report that 87%(?) of the small business would stop hiring shut that crowd up for the rest of his speech.
yep.....
Only 92%, eh? Wow, Obama really IS lagging from 2008.
NAACP's ultimate response to Romney, "Shut up, Cracker!"
Organ stings?
I gotta give him credit for having the courage to speak to this group. I wouldn’t bother. He didn’t have much to lose though, 2% and the rest are set against him.
Which means the tax base would shrink.. less $ for government programs. That DID get their attention!
Eventually someone will speak up to this wing of the Democrat Party and tell them off. Mitt's not the guy to do that.
Better to be excoriated for telling the truth.
Organ stings? Mitt has music now???
Somebody please tell Mitt. He’s not an actor in a silly soap opera. This is in deadly earnest.
I agree. It’s not about changing minds, or even getting votes. It’s about going into a hostile environment and saying at least some of what needs to be said. It’s what leaders do.
Interesting that Obama isn’t even bothering to go to the NAACP; he’s sending Plugs. Arrogance again. He has time to play 200 rounds of golf, but doesn’t even need to bother to show respect to the organization that still represents the “black establishment” on some level.
Hey, when you lead 92-2, why bother?
Mitt’s about as lefty as they come in the GOP, and it’s hilarious how Obama points at Mitt and hollers about what a horrible right wing nut he is.
Education is the 1 issue that Republicans win among blacks... Because they see and are living the failed public school experience. This should be shouted loud and proud, every single day!
I know they won’t switch overnight, but they are fed up sending their kids to failed schools.
Did they all get up and stomp out the door in outrage as soon as he walked in?
I wouldn’t expect a game changing speech for that crowd. What has happened is like a criminal defense attorney addressing a jury and presenting them with a scyntilla of “reasonable doubt”.
When little seeds of doubt are sewn into your opponant’s garden, the November Harvest might be thinner than assumed.
Obama has assumed that Latinos and Blacks will not require any more tending & fertilization after dumping yards of liberal manure on them over the last three years.
Romney walked in and pointed out to the target audience that all that governemnt fertilizer is nothing more than horse-dung. They resent him for that, but that doesn’t mean he is wrong in their eyes.
Go away troll.
I thought the NAACP was gone.
What exactly is their ‘job’ ?
Do they collect dues from all ‘colored people’?
If so, how do I tell what color I am ?
Once I am a ‘colored people’, what benefits do I get ?
If an attender to the meeting even listened with a fraction of an open mind they would know Mitt was correct, but doubt if one would.
I heard the music was from the NAACP, not Romney. Don’t know if it’s true, but I doubt Romney would have wanted organ music playing. A rap act, perhaps...
i agree....more and more black Americans are starting to see the light; by no means the majority but if somehow Romney can pull in 10% of the black vote that would be a kick in the balls to liberals and obozo...
The ABR’s could care less. They would have been in the crowd booing mittens as well along w the others.
I'm sure the music wasn't from anyone on his team. But I expect the organ stings to be SOP for speakers at the NAACP. (Unless the organist was just trying to mock him.)
WHY OBAMA DOESN’T CARE ABOUT POOR BLACKS
by National Black Republican Association NBRA on Monday, July 9, 2012 at 4:59pm ·
“Since becoming president, Obama has created 17% black unemployment. He also terminated welfare reform in his budget, which stopped the use of the money to help blacks get jobs and off of welfare. Republican intervention in Congress forced Obama to reinstate welfare reform. Obama has sided with his left-wing supporters in the teachers’ unions, acting against the best interest of poor black children. He eliminated funding for the DC school choice opportunity scholarship program that was helping black parents get their children out of failing schools. The article by Dick Armey “School Choice = Good for Kids, Bad for Unions. Can’t Politicians Do the Math?” explains how Republicans made Obama reinstate the school choice program in DC.
Obama has done nothing to solve our nation’s housing crisis that was created by Democrats who forced banks to make loans to people who could not pay them back. To see just how blacks were devastated by the housing market crash read the article “How Obama Bankrupted Black Homeowners.”
In a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus, Obama had the gall to tell black people to stop complaining and stop whining about the harm he has caused and go out to vote for him. Thomas Sowell in his article “Stop Whining? “ points out just how insulting Obama is to black Americans, while catering to other groups, such as gays and Hispanics.”
Interesting read. Really hope blacks wake up before November.
***Obama will not address the NAACP convention this year***
Coward.
You didn't watch his speech did you? He definitely didn't pander to the NAACP today. Told them how it is.
***Obama will not address the NAACP convention this year***
Coward.
Hopefully his Speech will mean that his support from Blacks will increase 50%, to 3%.
On another note, what White Only Group will Obama be addressing? Turnabout is fair play.
Thank you.
...and they didn’t throw their shoes at him, either!
Why even dignify them by going there in the first place...the NAA(L)CP is an irrelevant organization that does not speak for the vast majority of “colored” people.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/11/mitt-romney-naacp-speech_n_1664343.html#comments
Look at these delusional freaks. Damn i hate these libs!
In my opinion, Romney did a good job. It was no barn-burning speech, but he also did not pander. He pointed out the debt problem, education problems, how having children before completing education and getting married relates statistically to poverty, his intention to repeal Obamacare, etc. He told them he had no hidden agenda, and that creating jobs was his number one priority.
You don’t have to change minds, but softening motivation works too. If different blocs of voters predisposed to vote for Obama simply don’t seen Romney as “scary”, then they might not work so hard, might not put in the same number of hours or feel motivated to give as much money, or cheat etc.
I think this type message really could be geared toward latinos and work.
I did not hear the speech so am not sure he mentioned it, but the elephant in the room is the undercurrent of renewed suspicion and outright hatred in this country between racial communities. It is most blatant among blacks, but a lot of white people who four years ago were still trying to be sympathetic to the situation of the black community have had enough of being hated, threatened, and attacked. I haven’t seen overt racial division like this since the 1960’s and Obama, Holder, and their allies have been doing everything in their power to stir it up.
LOL - that’s a positive. I don’t like Romney at all and don’t want to vote for him (but I will), but his speech was pretty good. He needs to get out more and tell people how he is different than Obama (not that I think he is by much). Doesn’t seem like he is really campaigning. What is he doing with all that money he has raised?
20% of the White middle class that voted for Obama in 2008 say they will now vote for Romney. If the other 80% of the White middle class that voted for Obama would switch to Romney, then the need for Black support becomes moot. Romney would win in a landslide, and owe NOTHING to certain minority groups.
Many barriers remain. (Understatement of political year)
—
as long as folks remain slaves to lies, here is no true hope.. or change possible.
My African American brothers and sisters need to open their eyes. The Democrat Party has been screwing them forever. The Dems held them under Jim Crow laws for years, but worse, the Dems have kept them enslaved through entitlements and special treatment since the 1960s.
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